Most of Britain’s busiest stations are stops along London’s Elizabeth line, the Office of Rail and Road has revealed.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, London Liverpool Street handled the highest number of passengers: an estimated 94.5 million travellers entered or left the station – an average of 260,000 per day. Liverpool Street is a key station on the east-west Elizabeth line as well as the hub for trains to and from East Anglia.
The station was also in first place the previous year – and has since seen a one-sixth increase in the number of passengers.
Once again, London Paddington was in second place, with 66.9 million passengers. The station is the terminus for the Great Western Railway, serving South Wales and the West of England.
Tottenham Court Road in London’s West End was third with 64.2 million. The stations on either side on the Elizabeth line, Farringdon and Bond Street, were eighth and ninth respectively.
Some rail purists argue that the Elizabeth line severely distorts the figures, because many of the users have simply switched from London Underground services.
The leading station that is not on the Elizabeth line is London Waterloo, with 62.5 million. Until the new cross-capital line opened, it was perennially in first place. In addition, it was the only station to achieve almost 100 million passengers a year.
The 37 per cent slump in passenger numbers – many of them former five-day-a-week commuters – emphasises the big problems facing the railway, which can no longer rely on a bedrock of season-ticket revenue.
Stratford in east London, another Elizabeth line station, takes fifth place nationwide. Victoria and London Bridge are sixth and seventh, both with just over 50 million passengers.
The top ten is rounded off by London Euston (36 million), which has been plagued by problems – including the “zombie building site” that occupies the western part of the station, where work on HS2 has been paused.
Outside London, by far the busiest station is Birmingham New Street (33.3 million). Manchester Piccadilly, Glasgow Central, Leeds and Edinburgh Waverley are the only other stations to exceed 20 million passengers per year.
By far the most popular airport station is Gatwick, with 19.5 million.
Britain’s quietest station, Denton in Greater Manchester, handled barely one passenger per week – just 54 across the year. But that is an improvement of 20 on a year earlier.
Shippea Hill in Cambridgeshire (70) and Ince & Elton in Cheshire (86) were the other two stations that could not even muster two passengers per week.